“This success in ROI mirrors the expectation that the average number of health care apps developed by U.S. respondents over the next 12 months will grow 56% from nine to 14,” the survey explained.

However, while respondents are looking to develop 36% more apps in the next 12 months, they are only looking to increase their budget 15.5% to support the effort.

“This disparity between investment growth and desired app volumes may not be achieved by developing mobile apps as one-off projects,” said researchers. “Rather, a modern platform-based approach that supports agile development and modern API-based architecture can help increase developer efficiency, reduce development costs and support the increasing demand for mobile apps.”

Researchers found that 98% of organizations surveyed experience challenges when implementing mobile solutions, including security, cost, regulatory and compliance issues, and user/patient adoption.

The survey was commissioned with research firm Vanson Bourne to examine how 200 IT decision makers from public health care, private health care, life sciences and pharmaceutical organizations in the U.S., France, Germany and the United Kingdom implement their mobile app development strategies and some of the challenges they face.